Norm bowls ’em for a six with cricket system

ANSWERING age-old sporting questions like whether the Bradman era Australian cricket team was better than the powerhouse sides of the 1990s and 2000s is always difficult, but a Coffs Coast author has hit the problem for six.

Norm Mjadwesch, who lives near Glenreagh, has developed a system called the Broken Castle based on player statistics that allows you to pit your ideal team against a friend's and see who would win using career stats from the dawn of test cricket onward.

The tae kwon do teacher and self-confessed nerd first took the data analysis approach to First World War military equipment before expanding it to create playable scenarios in cricket, soccer and Formula 1 racing featuring the stars and the also-rans from every era.

Norm said it started when with a common argument among sports fans.

"We were having a bitch and moan about the performance of the Australian cricket team, so I said 'why don't you just pick a team and we'll work out how they compare'," Norm said.

This led to him working out an algorithm that best allowed people to play different line-ups against each other while giving a real sense of how difficult it would be for a bowler playing against marquee players.

"I tried to build a hypothetical structure based on, if this is someone's batting and bowling figures, how do you turn that into something that shows their ability.

"I don't even know why I didn't give up after I started it, it was a tough nut to crack."

What he's come up with is a game that can be played with dice and a scorecard and maybe a bit of sledging.

He was recently invited to attend a dinner in honour of Sachin Tendulkar.